Nerve blocks

Consultant and trainee anesthetists from Surrey, England traveled to Lusaka, Zambia with a point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) system to train Zambian colleagues in ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia. Dr. Madankumar Narayanan describes the educational objectives of the visit and the enthusiastic response from doctors in Zambia, as the team demonstrated the benefits of ultrasound-guided interventions in classroom workshops and on patients.

Dr. Philippe Mahiou practices anesthesia in the Grenoble area of France, splitting his time between a private clinic and working as a helicopter doctor attending mountaineering accidents. As part of his work, Dr. Mahiou routinely uses ultrasound, and understands the importance of the technology for both guiding anesthesia in the operating room and assessing patients in the field.

Anesthesiologist Dr. Frances Chow works to bring ultrasound-guided nerve blocks to British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC, Canada. British Columbia Cancer Agency has among the best cancer outcomes in the world, including highest of the G7 countries for childhood leukemia, and second highest survival rates across 67 countries for prostate and breast cancer.[1] 

It’s no secret that the U.S. is in the throes of a major heroin epidemic, at least partly caused by the over-prescription of opioid painkillers by well-meaning physicians. When it comes to perioperative pain control, there are new ways to tackle patient discomfort without resorting to prescription opioids.

Pain management specialist Joseph Marino, MD, is the chief medical officer at Long Island Jewish Valley Stream. He also serves as the director of regional anesthesia for Northwell Health and holds a faculty position at the Zucker School of Medicine. Dr. Marino has published numerous articles and worked on many textbooks in the field of anesthesia and pain medicine.

Dr. Raj Tobin, Director & Head of the Department of Anesthesiology at Max Super Specialty Hospital in Saket, New Delhi has 28 years of experience in anesthesiology. We interviewed Dr. Tobin to learn about the various clinical applications and the benefits of using point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) in her routine practice.

Dr. T. Sivashanmugam MD, DNB in Anesthesiology, PDCC, FRCP is a Professor in Anesthesiology at Mahatma Gandhi Medical College & Research Institute, a 1500-bed tertiary care teaching university hospital at Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu, India.